Behavior of a novel corrugated grouted sleeve splice for prefabricated construction under uniaxial tensile loading

A corrugated grouted sleeve (CGS) made of a seamless tube, which is easy to produce at low cost, is presented. To investigate the connection behavior of CGS splices, a total of 33 specimens are manufactured and tested under monotonic loads. The effects of the corrugation number, groove depth, and steel bar diameter on the connection performance of the CGS are examined. The test results show that the proposed CGS is deemed an effective and reliable steel bar connector for precast structure buildings due to the groove in the corrugation, which plays a key role as a wedge to prevent bond failure of the steel bar splice and enhance the confinement action of the sleeve; one corrugation formed by the roll extrusion method at the end of the seamless tube is sufficient to provide a wedge action to ensure steel bar failure first; the depth of the groove is suggested to be more than 2 mm to ensure that the bond strength is sufficient before steel bar fracture. Finally, an analytical model is proposed to predict the tensile resistance of the CGS considering the influence of confinement caused by the corrugations, and the predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.